The super capacitor racer is a fun but serious STEM learning resource. It involves a short activity in which students investigate and make design decisions, which affect the distance travelled by a model racer.

The racer is designed for bench top use and can travel 1m - 10m on a full charge. The range depends on the efficiency decisions and actions students make. Charging takes one minute using a USB lead connected to a PC.

Questions:

A: A large amount of the cost is due to royalties we have to pay on the design. There's also a few other components for the axles, drive belt, axle fittings and such which we only buy in for this project kit, making them quite pricey. If you want to save on cost you could design your own based on the capacitor kit. We sell a few different motors, I'd recommend the low inertia motor if you are designing for maximum distance. We also sell perspex and plywood, if you have access to a laser cutter or something similar you could make the chassis out of that.